


Metamorphosis

by DoctorTrekLock



Category: The Prestige (2006)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, I didn't mean for it to get this kinky, Light Dom/sub, M/M, Marriage of Convenience, Only one Borden (The Prestige), References to bondage, there's no cheating I swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:55:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28102017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorTrekLock/pseuds/DoctorTrekLock
Summary: Robert and Julia Angier and Alfred and Olivia Borden are, to all outside appearances, enjoying married life, but—like all magic tricks—things are not always as they seem.
Relationships: Alfred Borden/Olivia Wenscombe (The Prestige), Julia Angier/Olivia Wenscombe (The Prestige), Julia Angier/Robert Angier (The Prestige), Robert Angier/Alfred Borden
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Metamorphosis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [primeideal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/primeideal/gifts).



“I can slip a Langford underwater,” Julia reassured them.

“She can slip it; we can practice,” Borden echoed.

Robert straightened up. “Borden, he said no,” he snapped.

Borden looked at him. “You know knots better than me, then?” The frustration was still lurking on his face, but Robert could see the sly twist at the corner of his mouth and the lift of one eyebrow. He felt himself flush.

“No more mistakes, yeah?” Cutter asked them all. It drew Borden’s attention away from him and Robert could breathe a little easier without the reminder of what they’d gotten up to the last time knotwork had been introduced.

Borden’s face darkened, but before he could say anything else, he was interrupted by the rapid clacking of high heels on wooden boards.

Robert didn’t even need to look behind himself to know who it was. From the way Borden’s expression brightened, it could only be Olivia. Borden shot him a look before getting up to meet her.

He didn’t have time to fully decipher what message Borden had been attempting to convey. It was enough to know that there had been heat there and jealousy and enough smugness to make Robert regret kissing Julia’s leg earlier that evening.

“Olivia,” Borden called. “I didn’t expect to see you so soon.”

“Got away as soon as the curtains closed, Freddie,” she said breathlessly, greeting him with a kiss. “You promised to take me out tonight, and I wasn’t going to miss it for the world.”

From the look Julia shot him, Robert wasn’t doing as good of a job hiding the way his teeth were grinding together as he needed to be. He cleared his throat. “Going out?”

“’Course,” Borden said casually, his arm draped around Olivia’s waist. “I couldn’t leave my best girl at home on a Friday evening. Not when there’s a fair in the park.”

“You should come along,” Olivia said, her smile wide and bright.

Robert hadn’t planned on going to the free fair tonight, but Julia accepted before he had a chance to say anything. “We’d love to,” she promised. “Just let me finish with my hair. I swear, every night I feel as if I’ve lost a dozen pins in it that I’ll never get out.”

“Let me help you with that,” Olivia said. She was running her fingers through Julia’s hair before Robert could blink, and he soon found himself relegated to the spectator’s section with Borden.

“Really?” he hissed. “The fair?”

Borden’s mouth tugged up on one side. “What, are you not up for it, Angier?” he drawled. “I’m sure the girls and I could amuse ourselves, if you have something better to do.”

A rush of fury filled Robert at the image, but before he could do more than clench his hands into fists, Julia and Olivia were standing in front of them, perfectly reassembled for a night out.

Julia reached out to take his hand and tsked at the tension she found. “Come now, Robert,” she teased. “Don’t tell me Alfred has you all riled up already.”

“No more than he deserves,” Borden promised with a wink. Olivia laughed.

Julia rubbed her thumb over Robert’s knuckles until he loosened his grip enough to hold her hand. “The fair, then?” he managed.

“Of course,” Olivia said cheerfully, leading the two couples out of the theatre.

Milton had been working in a theatre on the fringes of the west end, so it wasn’t even a mile’s walk to Hyde Park. Luckily, the summer evening was mild and the night not yet too dark. A steadily darkening twilight fell around them as the sun quickly vanished, first behind buildings and then through trees.

The park itself was lit with a few electric lights bright enough to illuminate the scene. It was a small fair, but there was food and music, and Robert grudgingly admitted that he could see why Olivia was excited about it.

“I think there’s a man over there selling roasted nuts and that sounds simply amazing. I can never eat before a show and I’m positively famished,” Julia said, turning her teasing gaze on Robert. “Could I beg some pocket change from my dear husband?”

Robert could feel Borden’s eyes on him, but he didn’t look over. “Of course, darling,” he acquiesced. He handed over a few shillings and received a perfunctory kiss on the cheek for his trouble.

“Are you coming, Olivia?” The two women linked arms and vanished into the crowd.

“I see your dastardly plot was to get me to buy nuts for your wife,” Robert managed, pointedly watching the crowd and not Borden, even as he felt him draw closer.

“You caught me,” Borden admitted cheerfully. “Turnabout for sticking me with the bill last week.”

Robert felt the corner of his mouth draw up unbidden. “I told you, it was urgent.” It had been. For a given value of urgent. Namely, Robert’s urgent need to remain solvent ahead of payday.

Borden’s snort indicated he didn’t think much of being left to cover both men’s bar tabs.

He could feel him now, Borden’s warmth bleeding through the thin air that separated them. Robert knew that if he leaned back just the slightest bit, took a moment to list to the side, he would be pressed up against the other man.

Robert kept his eyes on the crowd, scanning for a pair of blonde heads.

When he spotted them, he could barely bite back a groan of frustration. Julia caught his eye and motioned for him to come over. The musicians had just started a new tune and he knew where this was going.

“Come on,” he sighed, turning toward Borden. “The girls—”

He broke off. Borden was watching him from a handful of inches away, the heat in his gaze enough to make Robert nearly swallow his tongue. “The, ah...” He swallowed and tore his gaze away. “The girls want us to dance with them.”

Borden leaned away, and Robert could suddenly breathe again. “Well then, we best not disappoint them,” he said lightly. When Robert chanced another glance at him, Borden’s expression was normal again, with no sign that he had been looking at Robert as if he wanted to eat him.

“Best not,” he echoed, and the two of them set off into the crowd.

“There you are,” Olivia exclaimed when they came into sight. “We were wondering when the two of you were going to show up.” She raised an eyebrow knowingly and Robert felt his ears burn.

“Dancing, is it?” he asked hastily.

“Yes,” Julia said decisively, holding out her hand. “Come along now.”

It was a country dance, not a paired dance, so Robert wasn’t holding Julia the whole time. Instead, their hands continually came together and separated as they wove around each other and the other dancers. Borden and Olivia were dancing right next to them, and Robert swore that Borden accidentally bumped into him more times than were strictly warranted.

The brush of their jackets or collision of their elbows might be dismissed as clumsiness on the part of the dancers, but there weren’t any socially acceptable reasons Robert knew of for Borden’s hand to slide briefly along his waist or cup his elbow for a scant heartbeat. And definitely no call for the moment Borden turned left when he was supposed to go right and ran straight into him, pressing them together for an instant from shoulder to knee.

Each touch wound him tighter and tighter until Robert was sure he was going to snap.

After a few dances, night had fully fallen and many of the fair’s attendants were beginning to leave. “Shall we go?” Robert asked, trying not to look as affected as he was by the other man’s attention.

“I suppose we could make it an early night,” Olivia said, her eyes flitting between Robert and Borden before settling on Julia.

“Excellent,” Robert said firmly, not waiting for the other two in their group to respond. “Let’s go.”

Julia didn’t hold Robert’s hand this time, choosing instead to walk next to Olivia, their heads inclined toward one another as they carried on a conversation in low tones. For his part, Robert walked behind them, shoulder to shoulder with Borden, and tried not to vibrate out of his skin.

It wasn’t a long walk from the park to the block of flats where they all lived, but to Robert it felt like a year had passed since they’d stopped dancing. Borden let them into the building and on the third floor the couples separated to their own flats across the hall from each other.

As soon as the door was shut, Robert buried his face in his hands and groaned.

Julia laughed. “You know he riles you up on purpose.”

“Of course he does,” Robert agreed. “What I don’t understand is why he always thinks it’s such a good idea to do it in public.” He collapsed into a chair with a bone-deep sigh.

“It’s not as if you don’t deserve it,” Julia tossed over her shoulder as she walked further into the apartment. “Teasing the poor man so every night.”

Robert huffed in frustration and ran his fingers through his hair. He had known that he would come to regret kissing Julia’s thigh. He just hadn’t figured on Borden’s revenge coming so soon. Or being so thorough.

Julia poked her head out of the bedroom. “Ten minutes,” she warned with a pointed look at the clock.

“I know, I know.” He gave himself a couple more seconds to just sit and breathe before getting up and making his way to the bedroom.

Julia was already out of her dress and jewelry, reclining in bed in a robe and nothing else. Robert raised an eyebrow. “Is this for me?” he joked.

Julia rolled her eyes. “That stopped being funny about two days after we met,” she informed him. “Eight minutes.”

He waved off her reminder, choosing instead to focus on selecting the next day’s wardrobe. A new shirt, trousers, undergarments. He hadn’t needed to grab his shaving kit in months. He’d eventually decided that there were some things that didn’t need to be dragged all over God’s green earth. Especially when he needed it in the same spot each morning anyway.

“Two minutes,” Julia chimed from the bed.

“All right, all right, I’m going,” Robert laughed. “No need to be pushy.”

He gave her a kiss on the cheek as he walked past her on his way to the door.

“Say hi to Alfred for me,” she called after him.

“You just saw him,” Robert replied. “I don’t think he’ll mind if you don’t send your regards.”

“Thirty seconds,” Julia said, in lieu of an answer.

Robert shook his head in amusement. He stood by the door and watched the clock tick down the last couple seconds. Then, in unison, two doors on the hall swung open.

Robert glanced in both directions by habit, but there was no one watching. There weren’t any floors above them and of the other two flats on the floor, one was between tenants and the other was inhabited by an old, half-deaf woman who left her apartment on rare, strictly scheduled occasions.

He and Olivia crossed the hallway, switching apartments with the ease of long practice. They had it down to a science at this point.

“Julia says hi,” Robert said, closing the door behind him.

Borden stood in the middle of the flat, watching him come in. Then he shifted his weight, his expression lifted, and he became Alfred, the man who had been Robert’s lover since before Julia was introduced to the act.

He smiled. “I’m sure Olivia would want me to return the greeting on her behalf,” he said, “but she was singularly focused tonight, and I’m afraid you weren’t on my wife’s mind.” He paused for a beat. “Your wife was.”

Robert rolled his eyes at the poor joke and crossed the room in a few short steps. His bundle of clothing was dropped on a chair as he passed and he pulled Alfred into a kiss without breaking stride.

It was Julia and Olivia who had come up with this madcap scheme. They had been together longer than Robert and Alfred had, though it took several months into their acquaintance for Robert and Alfred to admit to being together, even to themselves.

The idea was simple. From the outside, they appeared as two perfectly normal, married couples. They lived next door to each other, worked in close proximity to each other, and went on a large number of outings together, all perfectly respectable things for couples to get up to. In private, though, they were two sets of lovers who would put Oscar Wilde to shame.

Every step had been carefully choreographed, from the first flowers Robert brought Julia to the last anniversary present Olivia gave Alfred. It was the ultimate magic trick, designed to fool every audience.

And it had led to moments like this, where the world was shut out and time ceased to have any meaning. Where Robert could hold Alfred close and kiss him like they were the only men on earth.

Their mouths moved together, familiarity lending meaning to each brush of lips. Then Alfred’s teeth tugged at Robert’s bottom lip and he remembered instantly all the torment and tension Alfred had filled the evening with.

The kiss grew hungry, both of them pulling at each other’s clothing now. Robert growled into the kiss in frustration as he pushed Alfred’s shirt off of him.

The fabric hit the floor with a soft thump. “What—I don’t—understand,” Robert panted into the line of Alfred’s neck, his fingers gripping the other man’s waist tight enough to leave bruises. “Is why you do this. Every. Single. Time.”

Alfred chuckled darkly and yanked at Robert’s shirt until he had to let go of his lover or let the cloth tear. “Because it’s fun, love,” he murmured into Robert’s jawline. “Because I love the way you unravel for me afterwards.”

“I don’t—” Robert protested uselessly. They both knew that he did, to their mutual satisfaction.

“In fact,” Alfred continued, biting at the hinge of Robert’s jaw, “I have a mind to keep going.”

Robert’s hands faltered where he’d been fumbling at the closure of Alfred’s trousers. His breath hitched. His eyes fluttered closed, and Robert didn’t even need to look to know a wide grin was growing on Alfred’s face at his reaction.

“Maybe,” Alfred said thoughtfully, teeth tugging on Robert’s earlobe, “I’ll make you wait.” He was rewarded with a gasp at the sensation. He let go and blew gently on the damp skin to earn another one.

Then Alfred lowered his head, his nose skimming leisurely along the length of Robert’s neck. “Maybe I’ll tease you.”

Robert’s breathing was ragged now, every atom attuned to Alfred’s every move.

Alfred’s hands slowly slid down his arms, starting at his shoulders and ending with his fingers wrapped tightly around Robert’s wrists. “Or maybe,” he drawled, “I’ll remind you how good I am at knots.”

Robert’s eyes flew open, and he couldn’t help the noise he made at the thought. It had been too long since either of them had used rope off-stage.

Alfred must have read the desire in his eyes, because he squeezed Robert’s wrists harder and leaned in.

“I’ll show you the Langford double, up close and personal,” Alfred purred, his voice rough in Robert’s ear. “And we’ll see if you can slip it.”

With the promise lurking under his voice, Robert wasn’t sure he’d even try.

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from a name of a stage magic trick where the magician and assistant appear to switch places instantaneously.


End file.
